


Dreams of Times Before

by outerealm



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-24 22:32:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4937671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outerealm/pseuds/outerealm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans prepares for his new life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreams of Times Before

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Neutral Run Spoilers

Sans let his fingers drift over the various books on the bookshelf, humming softly to himself. Toriel was right beside him, also perusing the books. They were both looking up the same thing- books for kids. Papyrus was going to get bored with the books Sans had, and while the human world had different stuff, sometimes one wanted something a little more… homely.

Toriel pulled a joke book off the shelf, smiling slightly. It faded a few moments later, as she went towards the Recipe section, looking for more snail pies or something. Sans found another book Papyrus would probably like, and pulled it off the shelf. 

“toriel! you get everything?” Sans questioned, grin not fading for a second. 

“Yes Sans.” She said, smiling gently. She looked so… gorgeous like this. Not exactly happy, because she was tired, but determined to pull through for her human.

Greater Dog barked at the entrance of the library, tail wagging excitedly. Toriel walked towards Greater Dog, fingers scratching him behind his ears for a brief second. “I’ll go on ahead.”

Sans nodded, chuckling softly, “fair enough. i got some stuff to do.”

He wouldn’t be coming back for sometime. He had promised Papyrus that he’d have some new stories next time they met up, though he was going to be helping out Toriel for a little bit. Humans were serious business afterall, and with Toriel and Asgore’s relationship the way it was… well, it wouldn’t work out.

Sans strolled out of the castle, books a heavy weight against his arms. Monsters chattered and spoke to each other in loud, excited tones. The human had really stirred things up, hadn’t they?

Slippers crunched against snow as Sans strolled through the nearly empty town. Everyone was out doing their own thing- probably talking about the human, and outside probably. Sans strolled up to his house, and unlocked the door. 

The tv was still blaring Papyrus’s favorite cooking show. Odd, Papyrus usually turned off the tv before he went out the door. He was always so nitpicky about that sort of stuff. Sans turned off the tv, and glanced around. The two of them wouldn’t be back for awhile, so Sans glanced around idly for anything that might have been left behind.

The dirty sock that had been lying on the ground for months, or years, Sans had quite honestly lost track of the time. With the resets that had happened, it had never seemed like a good way of passing time- why bother cleaning up if it was just going to come back again? Still- he wouldn’t be back for a long time, and Papyrus would really blow his head off at seeing a dust and mold covered sock if he ever returned home.

Sans glanced at the table. His eyes flickered at a familiar red scarf, before he shook his head. Trust Papyrus to leave one of his extra capes out- he must have really been excited about the whole human business. It was still a little damp. Maybe someone had brought it in after Papyrus had carelessly dropped it. Papyrus didn’t usually drop things, but with all of the excitement, and his work on the puzzles to stump the human, he must of lost it somewhere. Undyne probably dropped it off or something. She disliked Snowdin, but she’d come around when Papyrus gave her a heads-up about any problems that were going on. 

Sans picked up the red scarf, and tucked it in the bag with the books. 

He picked up the sock in the corner, and tossed it into his bedroom. It was promptly caught up in his self-sustaining tornado of trash and dirty socks. The notes fluttered into the pile, circling around. Sans closed the door, and locked it shut. No need to take anything else from it. He could come back anytime.

Sans stumped down the stairs, and past the kitchen. No need to worry about the food, it wouldn’t ever spoil. Besides, whenever he came back, it would be good to have the food on hand. Well, Papyrus’s food wasn’t exactly edible, but… well.

Sans picked up the bag of books, and turned off the lights. He closed and locked the door. 

Snow slowly drifted down from up top, carpeting the ground in the pristine white blanket that would have Papyrus running around in excitement. Probably visiting the some of the dogs, or the snowman, or playing around with the puzzles that Sans created. But Papyrus had other stuff he had to do, so- Sans would be a very gracious big brother and take the scarf along with him for when they would meet up soon. 

He bypassed the snowman, merrily humming in joy that someone had taken a piece of it to the ends of the earth. It was time to meet Toriel.

Toriel was waiting at him right where they agreed. Sans felt something akin to excitement rising within him- he wouldn’t see Snowdin for a long, long time, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Everything would be fine eventually, he was certain.

Actually- this would be his first night in a long, long time without Papyrus.

The first day passed by peacefully, Sans and Toriel discussing all things human. Favorite meals, whether or not snail pies should be served- they ignored the scrunched up, disgusted face to the side. Well, Toriel didn’t notice, and Sans didn’t bring it to her attention. That night they swapped knock-knock jokes, and when Sans went to bed, he dialed Papyrus’s number.

He listened to the phone ring for some time, before Papyrus’s voice came on. With a small smile of his own, he fell asleep to Papyrus rambling on. Papyrus would forgive him. He dreamed of white falling onto a red scarf.

\------

The next week was much of the same. He and Toriel would talk and trade jokes. They’d trade children books that would most likely interest their charges. Sans made a few phone calls to Grillby’s and to other various people. Every night he called Papyrus and listened to him ramble his way into sleep. Even though he didn’t have too, he made a phone call to someone he absolutely despised one of those nights.

Papyrus ought to be proud of him for something like that. Well, not that he’d ever tell his brother, but it was the principal of the thing. Papyrus’s scarf remained tucked up against his bones. Wrapped around his wrist, where Papyrus always loved to grab, and impatiently tug him along if he felt Sans was taking too long. It hadn’t happened in awhile, Papyrus spending the week before the human came along slightly depressed, and afterwards far too… _busy_ to drag Sans along. Well, Sans hadn’t had the time after the human arrived in Snowdin to spend time at the house either. But- well, the scarf around his wrist was a comforting weight.

Warmth wrapped around him, slowly lulling him to sleep. Monsters chattered quietly to each other as Toriel's humming drifted out from the building. 

He dreamed. He dreamed of Papyrus excitedly telling the human that he was going to capture them. He dreamed of the human, fingers curled around a small knife, smile the same smile they had when they said that Sans crossword puzzles were harder. They were still smiling like that when they slowly brought Papyrus to his knees, smiling as his grey dust coated their legs, hands, knife- and Papyrus ( _“AT LEAST I STILL HAVE MY HEAD” what a horrible **pun**_ ) as his head slowly disintegrated, the humans grin bright and gleeful. A scarf fluttering to the ground, catching the dust and the human walking on, ignoring the dust as it caught on their clothes. Blown away by the wind before anyone could possibly gather it, no matter how many times Sans flickered through space to try and gather it all-

“Sans! Sans! Wake up!” 

Sans bolted upright, nonexistent organs squeezing in an almost physical pain. Toriel’s hand on his shoulder was gentle and kind, but… Sans doubled over, fingers scrambling against Papyrus’s red scarf around his wrist. He held it tight for a few moments, mind screaming out for his brother. 

Toriel’s warm hands grounded him. He took a deep breath, reminded himself that this wasn’t the first time he had seen his brother die.

It was the first time he couldn’t do anything about it though. Before he had reset time, jumped back to drag Papyrus from whatever thing had killed him, but the way back was cut off. Timelines were scrambled.

“Sans?”

“sorry about that. i just… had a bad dream.” Sans fingers tightened on the scarf.

“Should I call someone? Your brother... Papyrus?”

His non-existent heart lurched at the thought of listening to Papyrus’s rambling voicemail message one more time. Of redialing the number over and over and waiting for it to finish ringing before listening to Papyrus speak for just thirty seconds. He’d timed it. Jumped through time a little, so he could hear it, until he was too exhausted to jump anymore and fell asleep to Papyrus wondering why he wouldn’t answer the phone. 

“nah, it’s fine. we shouldn’t interrupt them. i’m sure they’re busy. Papyrus will… i’m sure he’s enjoying his vacation. he’ll… he’ll be back soon.” Saying the words out loud reassured him. Papyrus would be back soon enough. The human wasn’t done playing around, surely not yet. They’d be back to reset time, and when they did-

“Sans, I’m worried. Are you… are you certain you don’t wish to go back? While I am banished, you aren’t. I’m certain Undyne would welcome you back with open arms.”

He could never do that- the cities and tunnels were too full of memories. Here in the Ruins, he didn’t have to wonder if Papyrus would be around every corner. He couldn’t pretend that Papyrus was about to thrust a plateful of inedible spaghetti at him, telling him to eat. He couldn’t… Sans wasn’t strong enough for that. 

Sans had made two promises. One to Toriel not to kill the human. The other was to Papyrus that he’d do what was right. He wasn’t sure which promise he hated more. Toriel’s, or Papyrus’s. He was keeping both of them, wasn’t he?

“it’s fine. you’d be bone-ly without me.”

Toriel laughed softly, “I’ll get you a slice of cinnamon butterscotch pie. That’ll cheer you up.”

Sans doubted he’d be fully cheered up until time reset, but cinnamon butterscotch pie was a nice secondary thing. “sounds good.”

He leaned back in the chair as Toriel bustled away, staring at the ceiling as it shimmered, twisted turned-

_time resets_

Sans rolled out of bed, and hit the ground hard. He couldn’t remember much. There was just an aching pain in his soul telling him that he should go check on Papyrus, and go to the ruins doorway to exchange bad jokes. He rubbed at the side of his head as he slowly climbed to his feet, and opened the door. 

Normally when time reset, Papyrus would be in the kitchen. Tonight seemed to be different. The living room was still brightly lit, but this time Papyrus was draped across the couch, taking a nap of his own. His red scarf fluttered with each bone-shaking snore, and Sans touched his wrist automatically, in a gesture he wasn’t certain of the significance of. 

He stumbled down the stairs, relief bubbling inside of him. He knew that feeling of relief- Papyrus had died. But now, he was back. Something had brought him back. Time had been reset, and it wasn't by him.

Sans tossed a blanket over Papyrus’s prone figure, before leaning his back against the couch. _he’s alive, he’s alive, he’s alive, this time i can make sure he stays alive_ chanted through his head, before fading into a mostly peaceful exhaustion. Tomorrow he would have a skele-ton work to do to make sure everything went smoothly. Tomorrow he'd figure out what had made Papyrus die, and stop it if he could. Tomorrow. In the morning. 

The last thing he was aware of was Papyrus sleepily grabbing his hand like he used to when still a baby, before sleep thankfully over-swept him. This time made of sweet dreams with sunshine and an outside world he had once lived in.

\---------

Papyrus woke up slowly, filled with a different kind of pain then the pain of waking up on a couch. He shifted slightly, before stilling as Sans grunted. “HONESTLY!” He said very, very, very, _very_ softly. “THAT LAZYBONES! ALWAYS NAPPING!”

But he didn’t move to wake Sans up. He let his hand remain caught and tangled with Sans, as he futilely tried to recall the dream he just had of a wide, smile and a laughing face. Papyrus absently shifted the blanket that had suddenly and abruptly appeared to cover Sans as well, mind trying to catch the details. He had liked that smile- he had liked it a lot! And that smile… it felt like one that belonged to someone who would be his friend. Like he was going to be popular! Papyrus smiled at the remembered feeling of someone liking him.

Papyrus ignored the pang in his chest, that told him something really bad had probably happened to him. He ignored the way his bones felt like they were about to turn to dust- if he got down about all the times his bones felt that way, he’d be as lazy as Sans!  
No! Absolutely not! Papyrus was quite determined- he was going to make a friend! He would capture a human! 

…In the morning. 

For now, he’d let the exhaustion work on him despite the fact skeletons didn’t really need sleep. Papyrus always had just one dream on nights like these, especially when Sans had spent the day pulling pranks across time and space. He hated it when Sans did that- the dream wouldn't leave for weeks afterwards, and it was sometimes hard to move around.

Papyrus dreamed of a smile that wasn't kind, and white dust that blew past his eyes as pain settled into his very soul. And the dying hope of someone who only wanted a friend.

**Author's Note:**

> a/n: So this is a mix of headcannons and little pieces the characters have said- in the True Pacifist run, Papyrus mentions his brother will prank him across time and space leading me to believe he knows when time resets. Flowey says Sans has caused Flowey to reset a number of times, and he's killed everyone multiple times- Papyrus probably died the same way against Flowey as he did Chara. Totally believing in their goodness.


End file.
